Many crisis phenomena of our time are caused by the fact that humanity has lost the elusive laws of harmony. It was the 20th century that became the century of destruction of harmony and the establishment of symmetry. Lost harmony in relations with nature, there is no harmony in society, in relations between people. And so in all areas …
For example, in architecture, the triumph of symmetry gave rise to rows of symmetrical typical blocks, which are the same in Moscow and St. Petersburg, in Anadyr and Krasnodar. It's funny only in a cult comedy, but in everyday life, the dull sameness causes persistent depression. And the creators of this irony of fate are the people themselves, who have driven themselves prisoner of symmetry.
Symmetry rules the show in diplomacy as well, giving rise to the practice of symmetrical responses and reciprocal sanctions. The way out of this vicious circle is to build a new harmony in all spheres of life - in the social structure and in the technosphere. The relations between our huge and complex society and the biosphere should be built on new principles, on the principles of harmony. They must be built by learning from nature. We must take a lesson in harmony from nature, for only beauty can save the world.
Why F. M. Dostoevsky wrote that beauty will save the world? In the novel The Idiot, these words are spoken by the 18-year-old boy Ippolit Terentyev. “Gentlemen,” he shouted loudly to everyone, “the prince claims that beauty will save the world! And I affirm that he has such playful thoughts because he is now in love."
Dostoevsky not without reason put his idea into the mouth of the hero of the novel "The Idiot", and even then he expressed it through an "intermediary." In the period of rigid rationalism that gained strength, such an idea looked very, very strange.
And how many of us take this thought of Dostoevsky seriously today? Doesn't it seem to us just an unrealistic dream of the writer about the lost harmony? And the ancient Greeks, who first introduced the concept of beauty, considered it impractical, non-utilitarian.
But why then did the great aircraft designer A. Tupolev like to repeat that ugly planes do not fly? So maybe beauty is still practical? Perhaps, it is in its laws that the embryo of a new amount of technologies that will save humanity from all resource, social and environmental problems looming on it lies?
Maybe our technologies harmful to nature and our unjust society are just the first ugly scribbles of an inane humanity on whatman paper of development? And in the future we will learn to create beautiful technologies and make society harmonious?
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And maybe, having scientifically comprehended the secrets of beauty, we will be able to transform our whole life, while receiving not only aesthetic, but also a huge economic result? And then F. M. Dostoevsky will prove to be the most brilliant of all the predictions of mankind.
So what is beauty? Although the aesthetic criteria of beauty remain unchanged throughout the history of mankind, it was only in Ancient Greece that they first thought about what lies at the heart of beauty.
Sergey Sukhonos